Feldman - The Lost Steps of Infancy

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Referncias Feldman, B. (2002). The lost steps of infancy: Symbolization, analytic process and the growth of the self. Journal Of Analytical Psychology, 47(3), 397-406. 
The lost steps of infancy: Symbolization, analytic process and the growth of the self Brian Feldman, PHD, author, trained in clinical psychology at Johns Hopkins and the University of California at Berkeley. He served as chief psychologist at Stanford Medical Center. He is a Jungian analyst and currently on the faculties of the Jung Institute of San Francisco, the Northwest Center for Psychoanalysis (Seattle and Portland), the Inter-regional Society of Jungian Analysts, the Jung Center of Mexico City, and the Post-Jungian Centre in Tokyo.; 703 Welch Rd, Apt G-4, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA. Email: befeld@pacbell.net In !The Lost Steps" the Latin American novelist Alejo Carpentier describes the search by the protagonist for the origins of music among native peoples in the Amazon jungle. This metaphor can be utilized as a way of understanding the search for the pre-verbal origins of the self in analysis. The infant's experience of the tempo and rhythmicity of the mother/infant interaction and the bathing in words and sounds of the infant by the mother are at the core of the infant's development of the self. The infant observation method (Tavistock model) will be looked at as a way of developing empathy in the analyst to better understand infantile, pre-verbal states of mind. A case vignette from an adult analysis will be utilized to illustrate the theoretical concepts. In the novel The Lost Steps Latin American writer Alejo Carpentier (1956) describes the search by the protagonist for the lost origins of music among the native peoples in the heart of the Amazon jungle. As the protagonist moves through the jungle in search of the sounds of preliterate cultures he believes he is also travelling across all of man's collective history, from the most civilized to the most primitive. It appears as if his voyage were not only through the lush landscapes of the
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Amazon, but also through a compilation of cultural history read backward through the lens of a contemporary South American of European ancestry. At the same time it is through individual memory, across all the stages of his past life, from childhood and infancy, and ultimately to his own conception and birth. The narrative evolves in such a way that the individual and transpersonal journeys coincide and merge into a true synthesis of cultural history and the history of the self. It is a search, much like analysis, of restoration and integration, of searching for the origins of lost time. The Lost Steps is a significant book in Latin American literature as it is the first of the magical realism novels to emerge in the Spanish language. This literary movement has attempted to repair the broken connections with the lost and largely dismantled pre-Columbian civilizations of Latin America and to foster an integration of the richness of the past into contemporary Latin American culture. The search for the lost origins of pre-Hispanic culture is the theme of many of Latin America's most prominent writers such as Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes. The quest described by Carpentier in The Lost Steps becomes a transformative experience and puts the protagonist in touch with the elemental beginnings of his own self. This metaphor can be utilized as a way of understanding the search for the pre-verbal origins of the self in analysis. The infant's experience of the tempo, and rhythmicity of the mother/infant interaction and the bathing in words and sounds of the infant by the mother are at the core of the infant's development of self. The infant's experience of the dance between himself and his caregiver, and the rhythms and tempo of this dance help to shape the core experience of self. In Symbols of Transformation(Jung 1956) Jung talks about regression in analysis to infantile states. Jung notes that this regression reactivates the image of the mother as the goal of desire. In our analytical work this type of regression often occurs when there has been infantile/childhood trauma. Analysis of infantile states of mind requires that the analyst and analysand search for the lost steps of the analysand's infancy, and through this journey backwards in time, attempt to repair and integrate the emotional impact of past trauma that can live into the present and hinder the capacity for individuation. Infant observation research In order to understand infantile states of mind that emerge in the course of analysis with adults I have found it helpful to observe infants in the naturalistic setting of their homes. This type of experience is useful in gaining a deeper understanding of infantile states of mind that emerge in earliest infancy within the context of the infant caregiver relationship. First I would like to give a very brief introduction to infant observation research (Tavistock model) and its relationship to the theory and practice of analytical psychology. Infant observation is concerned with teaching and helping the developing analyst to both sharpen and deepen his observational skills in a supportive context. Infant observation is utilized as an adjunct to the teaching of child and adult analysis rather than as a research tool in child development. It is ethological in nature as it involves the observation of the infant in the naturalistic context of his family. It does not involve the experimental manipulation of variables and behaviour, and the observations are not conducted in a scientific laboratory. Rather, infant observation as developed at the Tavistock Clinic in London during the past fifty years involves the observation of infant-parent interaction in the naturalistic setting of the home. Each family is observed in the familiar setting of their home for one hour per
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week during the first two years of the infant's life. The purpose of this two-year observational experience is to provide an opportunity to observe first hand, from an analytically oriented perspective, the unfolding of the early infant-parent relationship. Through these detailed observations it is possible to gain a first hand knowledge of infant/parent interaction and the infant. Infant observers report finding the experience helpful in gaining greater insight into the infantile and early childhood aspects of their analysand's experience as well as in generating a deeper capacity to empathize with pre-verbal states in more regressed clients. Before becoming a more standard adjunct of Jungian analytic training, infant observation began to be utilized in many European psychoanalytic trainings. The Kleinian analyst Esther Bick (Bick 1964) inaugurated the infant observation technique at the Tavistock Clinic in London. Bick was a close associate of Melanie Klein. Klein's emphasis on describing early infantile states of mind, combined with John Bowlby's (1969) work on attachment theory, led the originators of the child analytic training programme at the Tavistock Clinic to institute an observational seminar covering the first two years of the infant's life. The observational seminars were deemed by analysts to be of such significant help in training that the technique was utilized widely in the training of analysts at European psychoanalytic institutes. Within the field of analytical psychology Michael Fordham introduced infant observation into the child analytic curriculum of the Society of Analytical Psychology in the 1970s, with the help of the Kleinian analyst Gianna Williams. Fordham felt that infant observation was fundamental in providing a foundation experience for the practice of both child and adult analysis. As a result of my ongoing infant observation research I have found the following hypotheses to be useful in understanding the growth of the baby within the primal relationship of infant and parent. The baby needs to be first conceived in the psychological space between the parents. This facilitates the baby being held and nurtured in an appropriate emotional manner by the parents. Both before and during the pregnancy the archetypal !inner" baby is constellated both within and between the parents. Each parent creates an image of their potential baby in their mind before the actual conception takes place, and this image develops and evolves over time during the gestational period. Often the psychological/imaginal impact of the baby archetype is filtered through the parents" own perception of themselves, their self-image and their own deeply experienced psychological needs. As the baby evolves physically and psychologically there is an increased capacity for physical motility and greater capacity for psychological separation. An interior symbolic world is constructed through experiences of optimal connection and separation; the baby is able functionally to take care of himself in increasing increments. According to Fordham (1985) the first symbol to take shape inside of the infant is the mother's breast. The image of the breast takes shape within as the infant attempts to grapple with its physical absence. In my own observation I have noticed that the baby's capacity for connection also plays a significant role in symbolic development. I have observed babies, in a state of reverie, hold onto the nipple with their mouths, and it appears to me
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that they are attempting to form a sensory image of the breast/nipple that they will be able to store in memory. Slowly through these experiences of connection and separation a symbolic space is created within that can be utilized for thinking and reflection. I believe that there is a relational archetype that emerges at birth (and perhaps in utero). This relational archetype mediates object relations (both the internally and externally ones) from birth, and continues to have an influence throughout the life cycle. At birth the relational archetype forms the basis for early bonding and attachment experiences. Bowlby's (1969) attachment research offers ample evidence that the infant is genetically wired to form emotional bonds with attachment figures from birth. In Jungian terms this could be seen as an archetypal configuration occurring at the infrared pole or instinctual pole of the archetype. At the ultra violet end of the archetypal spectrum exists imagery of the coniunctio: the relational couple. Jung explored the adult form of the coniunctio in the !Psychology of the transference" (Jung 1946), and postulated that this archetypal configuration is at the core of the analytic process. I would agree with Jung that the coniunctio or the relational couple is central to analytic work. My research is an attempt to understand the developmental sequence of the coniunctio, starting from intrauterine life and infancy. Infant observation research has made me aware of the pivotal significance of the coniunctio or relational couple from birth. The mother-infant coniunctio forms the foundation of the later coniunctios that develop through the life cycle, and as we know from our clinical work, difficulties in the early mother/infant couple can lead to later developmental problems. It is helpful clinically to have an understanding of the early mother/infant coniunctio, as this often emerges first in the individuation process. In regard to the early mother/infant couple I would like to make the following points that also are derived from my ongoing research of observing babies: 1. The infant's sense of agency, his capacity to create his universe in relationship with and in interaction with the significant figures in his environment is fundamental to understanding his development. This principle can also be related to analytic work and our need to support our analysand's emerging agency in the analytic arena. 2. The infant's mental, emotional and spiritual development evolves in the context of the early coniunctio. Mental, emotional, and spiritual developments do not evolve in isolation from the significant relationships in the baby's life. The contextual component of the infant's experience is fundamental to understanding his development. 3. The early mother/infant relationship is quite fluid in nature. There is an ongoing oscillation between states of connection and states of separateness. There are a rhythm and a tempo to these fluctuating states. The baby and mother undulate with each other in their particular dance. These observations are in contrast to Fordham's (1985) conceptualizations that the infant is separate from birth, and are also divergent from Winnicott's (1960) concept that the mother and
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infant are in a state of fusion during the earliest period of life. 4. The infant's capacity for symbolization evolves from birth onward. The skin, as the first experience of a container, is fundamental in this regard. Through the experience of the skin the infant develops a concept of inside and outside spaces, with a boundary which separates the two distinct areas. The skin is the envelope in which the body is contained, and it is the skin that provides the points of contact with the external world. The skin acts as a delineator of boundaries between what is experienced to be outside and what is experienced as inside the self. This primary skin function involves the evolution of a psychic container within which thought, affect and symbolic experience can be held and reflected upon. This experience of the skin later evolves into a concept of an internal and external world. Difficulties in the evolution of the psychic skin, the mental representation of the sensory skin, can be seen in the analysis of primitive mental states where boundary difficulties are prominent. In these cases a secondary skin function can develop. The secondary skin function is a defensive manoeuvre that helps to contain unbearable affects through the use of bodily and mental processes such as can emerge in eating disorders, sexual addictions as well as in other psychosomatic conditions (Feldman forthcoming). 5. In my observations of babies I have been struck by the infant's need to give shape to his bodily self by pushing his body up against hard and soft surfaces, and by the mouthing of and grasping hold of animate and inanimate objects. The experience of the infant being securely held in the arms of the mother or other significant caregiver, and the exploration of the body of the other, especially the touching of the skin of the breast during breast feeding as well as the touching of the mother's face by the infant are fundamental in the development of a coherent body image. 6. The infant has a capacity for reverie as well as the mother. The infant's reverie can be seen as the infant plays with the nipple and breast - the first play object. I would hypothesize that during these states of reverie the infant's capacity for introjection develops and gradually the breast/nipple is introjected and forms the basis of a primal good internal object. The nipple in the mouth is at the core of the development of the coniunctio. It is the first interpenetration of subject and object, and this forms the basis for later schemes of object relations. This thesis is different from that developed by Bion (1962) and later Fordham (1985) where the mother's capacity for reverie is seen as primary. I would place equal emphasis on the infant's capacity for reverie and I would postulate that the first symbolizations are sensory and unfold in relationship and in connection with the mother and are not a result of separation and absence from her. The relevance of infant observation for the practice of adult analysis The following case material is an example of the usefulness on infant observation taken from the analysis of an adult patient. At the time of the reported sequence of clinical material this twentynine year old analysand was in her third year of analysis and was attending five times weekly sessions conducted on the couch. The analysand had started her analysis after a psychological breakdown occurred subsequent to the death of her mother. During this period in her analysis the
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emergence of infantile experience was a prominent feature of the work. This material points to the significance of exploring the lost steps of infancy as a way of contacting emotions originating in the pre-verbal period. During Cathy's third year of analysis she evolved an important metaphor, that of the skin as a psychic covering. She began to talk of her analysis as a skin graft that was beginning to take hold. The skin graft was thought to cover her psychic lesions, the pains and traumas from earliest infancy and childhood that had been causing her so much distress. The feeling was strong that the transference relationship could provide her with a sense of protection, like the protective skin that covers the body's sensitive organs. The psychic skin was to provide the protection for her damaged sense of self. It was also to serve to help her feel more organized and protected. Winnicott (1960) talks about the infantile experience of the skin as providing a psychological barrier and existing in a position between the !me" and the !not-me". According to Winnicott, through this experience the infant slowly develops a sense of having an inside and an outside, and a body schema is formed. Cathy felt at this point that she was more involved in treatment. We were entering into a more primal relationship (Neumann 1973), where she felt a sense of a deeper connection and a desire to be metaphorically as close as a nursing couple. This desire for unity within the transference/countertransference was an attempt at a repair of feelings of disconnection from her mother in early childhood. Cathy needed to re-find her own lost steps of infancy. She needed to both understand and create a narrative of her own infancy, as well as experience with me, within the temenos of the analytical relationship, feelings for which she found no safe container earlier in her life. Cathy felt that her mother of infancy was not always available to her in ways that she so desperately needed, and this made her feel depressed, empty and unwanted. Memories of her mother were of her often being alone, sitting and reading on a chaise longue while she (Cathy) was in another room experiencing her own sense of aloneness and abandonment. Cathy's memories were of being left at home with her mother not telling her where she was going. This lack of transitioning left Cathy in despair. What Cathy experienced as her mother's depression and aloofness were significant features of her childhood. This left her with a fear that she could fall over the edge of a cliff and disintegrate. Her fear of my not being preoccupied enough with her, and her fantasy that I was overly concerned with other patients were important anxieties at this time, as she felt she needed my complete attention. This desire appeared in the transference as a reenactment of feelings she had in infancy toward her mother whom she felt was either depressed or more preoccupied with her siblings than with her. She also experienced her father as being unavailable due to his need to work long hours and travel frequently away from home. My own fantasies and feelings at this time revolved around the image of a baby attempting to root at the breast to initiate a good feed, but unable to do so because of feelings of rage and anger which prevented a good connection from being made. The anger at her mother in infancy, and towards me in the transference, needed to be worked on and integrated before she could begin to accept being and become nourished by the analysis. She appeared to be yearning for what she did not
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have in infancy, a safe and secure attachment with a caregiver whom she could experience as being attentive and preoccupied with her emerging emotional states. A dream expressing this desire and need emerged at this time and was described as follows: I can see you with me as an infant. You are changing, holding, and communicating with me. There is a focus and a gentleness. It is a kind of calm and caring I have never known before. There is also a regard for me as something separate, something unique, facilitating my growth, not directing it or merely tolerating it. The dream was an important one for Cathy, as she was now finding the lost steps of her own infancy, and in doing so was feeling that it was possible for her to develop a primary skin function (Feldman forthcoming), a container where her sense of self could be held and nourished. By evolving a primary skin function she could begin to hold her emotions within, create some reflective space, and begin to evolve a more secure attachment relationship with me in the context of the analysis. Due to the emergence of early infantile anxieties related to a fear of falling apart, Cathy needed to find and experience with me some sense of security and some way of being held together so that she would not become overly fragmented. At this time her need for a stable and secure attachment with me increased. She would fantasize !coming to the office and just lying there silently, feeling submerged as if in water, just trusting and feeling and blending". She feared I would not be comfortable with the emergence of these infantile states because she could not use words to describe them. She would say at these times that !explaining is sometimes hateful, painful and insufficient". She yearned for a complete pre-verbal understanding and empathy. It was important for her to feel that I would attempt to be attuned to her needs and emotional states, and when she experienced some disruption in attunement she became angry and depressed. These desperate feelings would subside when she was able to feel a sense of my being able to more fully understand her infantile longings. Cathy's need for a close and undisturbed transferential relationship was strong. It felt as if there was a primal need inside of her for intense closeness and connection that yearned to be satisfied. She longed to re-enact this desire with me within the context of the analytical space and the analytical relationship. She needed to experience a safe anchor with me, a sense of security within the relationship that would help her to develop a more stable and secure sense of self. During this period Cathy viewed me as a calming and stabilizing influence in her life, and the transference was tinged with maternal feelings. She described a fantasy of my having breasts that she could suckle from, and she evolved a fantasy of having a lesbian relationship with me. This feeling of relating erotically to my feminine part, my anima, was very compelling for her, and her acceptance of this fantasy made her slowly feel that she could trust something within me, and utilize that to repair her troubled psyche. The lesbian fantasy represented an attempt at repair of the earliest infant-mother relationship, with its eroticism, sensuality and possibility for emotional holding.
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As Cathy's analysis continued, the infantile material was worked through over and over again. It appeared that Cathy had entered a period where the holding and containing environment of the analytical relationship became important for her ongoing development. During the holding phase (Winnicott 1960) the analysand's capacity for confidence is rediscovered in the reliability of the analyst and the professional setting. Winnicott postulates that if the analysand did not experience the reliability of the mother in the maternal care she received during infancy, the analysand will need to find it in the analyst's behaviour and analytic attitude. According to Winnicott, the holding phase takes place in the pre-verbal stage (prior to 2 years of age) of the infant's development, a stage when the infant primarily depends upon maternal care which is based on empathy. The analytical technique that Winnicott advocates involves meeting the analysand's need in terms of dependence in the analytical relationship and situation. It was possible for me to empathize with Cathy's experience in analysis as result of my training in infant observation. I was better able to understand her non-verbal, bodily experience, and I could more easily evolve an imaginal space within myself to hold and process these early, yet formative experiences. I felt that my capacity for an imaginative perception of her infantile needs facilitated the evolution of her own imaginal and bodily/sensory processes and her experience of having a coherent self, deeply rooted in her own feminine body image. Discussion The results of these investigations into infant observation indicate that it is a useful tool both in helping to understand the experience of infant development, and in understanding the infantile aspects of our adult analysands. Infant observation can increase our capacity to empathize with the pre-verbal, bodily experience of our analysands, and can help us to develop an analytic attitude that supports the evolution of an imaginative space within ourselves. This space within ourselves, in interaction with the inner space within the analysand leads to the development of an analytic couple or coniunctio that can enable the analysand to search for and hopefully find the lost steps of their own infancy. Through the exploration and experience of the earliest origins of the self, there is the possibility for the repair of a faulty relationship to the self, and the individuation processes can be nurtured and set in motion. References 1 Bick , E. (1964). !Notes on infant observation in psycho-analytic training". Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 45 , 558-66. (IJP.045.0558A)
2
Bion , W. R. (1962). Learning from Experience. New York: Jason Aronson . (ZBK.003.0001A) Bowlby , J. (1969). Attachment. London: Hogarth Press . (IPL.079.0001A) Carpentier , A. (1956). The Lost Stepsy. New York: A. Knopf . Feldman , B. (forthcoming). !A skin for the imaginal". Forthcoming publication in the J. Anal.
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Psychol.
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Fordham , M. (1985). Explorations into the Self. London: Academic Press . Jung , C. G. (1946). !The psychology of the transference". CW 16 . Jung , C. G. (1956). Symbols of Transformation. CW 5 . Neumann , E. (1973). The Child. London: Hodder & Stoughton .
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Winnicott , D. W. (1960). !The theory of the parent-infant relationship". In The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment. New York: International Universities Press . (IPL.064.0001A)
This publication is protected by US and international copyright lawsand its content may not be copied without the copyright holder's express written permission except for the print or download capabilities of the retrieval software used for access. This content is intended solely for the use of the individual user. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 2002; v.47 (3), p397 (10pp.) JOAP.047.0397A
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